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Victor Edward Willis (born July 1, 1951) is an American singer, songwriter, and actor. He is best known as the first member of the disco group Village People, for which he was the lead singer and co-songwriter during its most popular period, on all of its most successful singles. In the group he performed costumed as a cop or a naval officer. The son of a Baptist preacher, Willis developed his singing skills in his father's church. With training in acting and dance, he went to New York and joined the prestigious Negro Ensemble Company. He appeared in many musicals and plays, including the original Broadway production of ''The Wiz'' in 1976 and subsequently, the Australian production. Willis also had written and recorded several albums in the mid-1970s for independent labels and was eventually introduced to French disco producer Jacques Morali. Morali, who dubbed him the "young man with the big voice", approached Willis and said, "I had a dream that you sang lead vocals on my album and it went very, very big".〔Village People, Rolling Stone Magazine Vol. 289, April 19, 1979〕 ==Village People== Willis agreed to sing lead and background vocals under the auspices of ''Village People'', a non-existent concept group which included the hits "San Francisco (You've Got Me)" and "In Hollywood (Everybody is a Star)". The album became a huge hit in the burgeoning disco market. After an offer from Dick Clark for the group to perform on ''American Bandstand'', Morali and Willis were pressed to develop a "real" group around Willis to perform live. They did so by placing an ad in music trade papers for "macho" singers who "could also dance" and "must have a mustache".〔 Willis was soon writing hit after hit produced by and co-written with Morali. Village People quickly rose to the top of the charts with Willis at the helm scoring numerous chart busters such as "Macho Man", "Y.M.C.A.", "In the Navy", and "Go West". In 1980, as preparations for a Village People feature film ''Can't Stop the Music'' were under way, Willis left the group. Although he does not appear in the movie, he wrote the lyrics for two of the film's songs, "Magic Nights" and "Milkshake". ''Can't Stop the Music'' became one of the biggest Hollywood movie flops of all time. After Willis departed, Village People never had another hit. In an attempt to "recapture the magic", Morali convinced him to return to the group in 1982 for the album ''Fox on the Box''. The album was never released in the United States. In 1983, Willis left the group for good. In 2013, Willis appeared on the TV One series ''Unsung'' in their two-hour special retrospective on the disco era. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Victor Willis」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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